Lion mcx printing and drivers

[friedelj]

Not really an issue with Casper, but I'm looking for suggestions. We manage printer settings for our computer labs with Open Directory MCX. Our labs print to queues on a Windows print server. Everything worked great on OS 10.6, but with Lion, the print queues all show up with the Generic Postscript Printer driver instead of the actual model.

I know that printer drivers are not part of the OS anymore, so we downloaded the printer driver installers from the Apple website and pre-installed them as part of the Casper Imaging configuration. I can manually add a printer and select the appropriate driver from the list, but the mcx printers still only have the Generic Postscript driver which leads me to believe the driver is not the issue.

Has anyone else seen this or have suggestions?

[friedelj · Accepted solution]

I switched to installing printers through a Casper policy and it works fine now.

Using this method, I also no longer need to pre-install the printer drivers from the Apple support downloads. Once the Casper policy has created the printer, the system finds the print driver software the next time Software Update runs, which was not happening with mcx-added printers either.

[friedelj · Accepted solution]

I switched to installing printers through a Casper policy and it works fine now.

Using this method, I also no longer need to pre-install the printer drivers from the Apple support downloads. Once the Casper policy has created the printer, the system finds the print driver software the next time Software Update runs, which was not happening with mcx-added printers either.

[jhbush]

friedelj, would you mind posting your solution?

[Lincoln]

I've been adding printers via policy too and it works a treat. The only difference is that I capture the install and configuration of drivers as well and package them, then I slip relevant drivers into the policy so the drivers and printers are installed via policy. The other nice thing about this is that you can also uninstall printers via policy so that if there are changes in the environment, printers get changed/renamed or whatever, I can automate pushing out the changes.

I have a machine on my desk which I use for all printer installations. I first install the printer on that machine, test that it is working properly, then then in casper admin add that printer. The printer can then be added to policies as needed and pushed out. With drivers, if I need to capture drivers which are not included in the OS I simply capture with composer and package as DMG, add to casper admin and slip into the policy with the printer. No need to wait for updates, printers install and work, staff and students are happy, and I'm not left with obsolete printers on machines that don't need them.

As an example, I recently needed to move some printers from our Xserve to a Windows 2008R2 box. Having installed the printers on the server, then my iMac, then added them to casper admin and slipped them into a policy. Within 2 hours of starting the process I had between 2 and 8 printers installed and old printers deleted on around 70 iMacs and MB Pros all without leaving my desk.

Simple. And any time I re-image I a machine I can just flush the policy history for that machine and it will automatically reinstall the printers (along with all the other policy stuff).

I did also at one stage write a basic script to delete all printers from a machine. This has to be used carefully but if you KNOW that you want to delete all the printers and install only ones you have in Casper Admin it can make life easier.

Clear?

Regards

Lincoln

[friedelj · Accepted solution]

My solution was to stop managing printers for Lion computers with mcx and start installing the printers with a Casper policy. We downloaded and distributed the driver packages from Apple's website (the same ones that a computer would download through Software Update after a printer was added) with a policy.

Then, for each lab there is a policy that installs the printer(s) they need. The printers used in the policies were created through Casper Admin using the add printers option which can grab any printer that is configured on the computer running Casper Admin (not unlike the Workgroup Manager method for mcx). Each policy is set to install the printer or printers and set the default printer.

[mm2270]

Your method will work fine for most standard printers that Apple ships drivers for, but if you have other types of printers, such as special Xerox or Canon models that are not included in Apple's software updates, you'll get a printer added with a generic PS driver. It will still work, but only in a basic way. You'll lose all the capabilities to manage printer output, select trays or special paper weights, etc.